Long before Robert Johnson ever went down to the crossroads, violinist & composer Niccolo Paganini was rumored to have
sold his soul to the devil in exchange for musical ability. Evidence against this theory: Paganini's 5th Caprice actually
prevented the devil from
stealing The Karate Kid's soul (the devil settled for stealing Ralph Macchio's career instead). Evidence in favor of this theory: When played on acoustic guitar, the virtuosity in his 24th Caprice really
seems supernaturally inspired. For my money, however, the perfect storm of ominous music & stringed instruments comes together in
this version of Carmina Burana (mp3 direct download), arranged for solo banjo.
posted by jonson
on Sep 27, 2006 -
35 comments
Arif Mardin passed away Sunday. Yes, the first is a
NYTimes link, but
here's an obit from the
Independent newspaper, and
here's a BBC obit as well. It would be unseemly not to note the passing of the arranger or producer (or both, or co- ) behind the Art Farmer Quartet's
Live at the Half-Note, Sonny Stitt's
Stitt Plays Bird, Max Roach's
Drums Unlimited, the Rascals' "Good Lovin'" and "Groovin'," Aretha Franklin's
I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You and
Aretha Now, Dusty Springfield's
Dusty in Memphis, Donny Hathaway's
Extension of a Man, the Stones'
Black and Blue, Chaka Khan's first several solo albums, and hundreds of others all the way down to Norah Jones ... a list almost too long to compile. NPR interview
here, lengthier article from
Sound on Sound here, his discogs.com list
here.
posted by blucevalo
on Jun 27, 2006 -
11 comments
Despite the vast number of religions, nearly everyone in the world believes in the same things: the existence of a soul, an afterlife, miracles, and the divine creation of the universe. Recently psychologists doing research on the minds of infants have discovered two related facts that may account for this phenomenon. One: human beings come into the world with a predisposition to believe in supernatural phenomena. And two: this predisposition is an incidental by-product of cognitive functioning gone awry. Which leads to the question ...
Is God an Accident ?This is a fascinating essary from the current Atlantic reprinted apparently in full for non-subscribers
posted by y2karl
on Nov 24, 2005 -
232 comments
R.I.P. Lyn Collins [NYT, reg. req.] Backing singer for James Brown, whose revue she joined in 1971 (she was also the sister of his band members Bootsy and Catfish Collins), her first hit was the monster Think (About It) in 1972, one of the most sampled records in hip hop, maybe most famously in Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock's It Takes Two. (Extensive, but by no means full, list of Collins samplers
here.) Audio sample (mp3) of You Can't Love Me If You Don't respect Me
here. Brief obit and full mp3 of a great live version of Do Your Thing
here.
posted by Len
on Mar 17, 2005 -
9 comments
Do you have to be black to possess that elusive quality known as "soul"? Soul Music's
New Face: 16, Blond And British.
Joss Stone, the 16 year-old winner of the BBC TV talent show Star for A Night, traveled to Miami to work on songs for a pop album. Instead, she hooked up with a group of gifted but
long-overlooked musicians who were among the prime movers and shapers of "The Miami Sound" of the Seventies: Betty Wright ("Clean Up Woman"), Timmy Thomas ("Why Can't We Live Together"), Latimore ("Let's Straighten It Out") and Little Beaver ("Party Down"). Some of them had not been in the studio for years; Little Beaver was working for Amtrak and Timmy Thomas was a college administrator when they got the call. Together they recorded her first album,
The Soul Sessions, in only four days. Listen on
All Songs Considered or download full mp3 versions of the first 2 songs at
Amazon.
posted by probablysteve
on Oct 14, 2003 -
46 comments
RaptureLetters sends an email to your unsaved friends, after
the Rapture, explaining where your good soul has disappeared to. I suppose this means that they only employ
sinners, in order to ensure that someone remains behind to operate the site...
posted by adamms222
on Dec 5, 2002 -
29 comments
Soulwalking , John Ponomarenko's
Soul Review--two sites with some
serious design issues on the topic of Soul music. As to the who, what. when and where of Soul Music, I direct you to
Peter Guralnick's simply wonderful
Sweet Soul Music. It's still in
print and should be at your library or a better used bookstore, if you are near a larger urban center. (more inside)
posted by y2karl
on Apr 18, 2002 -
4 comments
Rufus Thomas 1917-2001 Since the 11th of September, I've left the radio off a great deal of the time, so it was only today, while listening to Terry Gross's
Fresh Air, that I heard Rufus Thomas had died. A performer since he was child comedian and tap dancer with the Rabbit's Foot Minstrels, he also was
a famous dj on WDIA in Memphis, the first all-black radio station format in the country, recorded
Bear Cat, an answer song to Big Mama Thornton's
Hound Dog that was an early hit for Sam Phillips' Sun Records and enjoyed a brief second career as the World's Oldest Teenager--singing
Walkin' The Dog and
Funky Chicken and
many duets with daughter Carla--for
Stax Records. From minstrel show to medicine show to dj to elder statesman of Memphis soul, his life and career spanned history. I, for one, will miss him.
posted by y2karl
on Dec 17, 2001 -
10 comments
